BEMIDJI — From the Danube to the Mississippi, John Arenz has participated in canoe trips and competitive races all over the world in his many years as a paddler.
On a recent sunny, Saturday afternoon he could be spotted racing down the Mississippi River in a tandem canoe with his son Brett during the annual Minnesota Championship Canoe Races .
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John’s brother Ed and his other son Devin were also out on the water that day, racing with dozens of longtime friends and members of the paddling community they have met during their many decades in the sport.
While the participating paddlers take the sport seriously enough to purchase high-level, professional equipment, practice often and give each race their all — it was obvious by the banter, laughter and joy in the air that this particular day of racing was all about the fun of the sport for these canoe enthusiasts.
Around 40 folks from near and far joined in the annual canoe races held near the Lake Bemidji outlet of the Mississippi River on Sept. 7-8, with several teams coming down from Canada to participate. While the annual event may not offer any large cash prizes or fancy awards, according to race organizer Mark Walters, it’s still well worth the trip.
“It's a culture,” Walters said. “It's just a fun thing to participate in if you're into the sport, and you can’t beat these views and the river quality down here. But mostly it’s for the bragging rights.”
A river family
For the four Arenz men, the annual event is something they have always done as a family, primarily thanks to John’s extensive passion for the sport.
It all began for the Cass Lake native when he started paddling his dad’s canoes as a kid.
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“Our family cabin was on Steamboat Lake, so it was a natural place to canoe from,” John said. “I just fell in love with the activity of it, going out and paddling around. It kind of opens another world for you when you grow up exposed to those kinds of things.”
By the time he and his brother, Ed, were teenagers they were regularly going on canoe trips together with their friends.
“We've had a lot of fun canoeing together, both Ed and I,” John said. “It's been a great part of our lives.”
John later served six years in the military, three in the U.S. Army and three in the reserves. While stationed in Hanau, Germany, working for the U.S. Department of Defense, he met his future wife Wanda who was working as a schoolteacher on the base.
“And we fell head over heels in no time,” he said. “We had a great romance.”
Of course, with John’s love of paddling, it didn’t take long before the pair decided to take a trip down the river.
“Our first paddling experience together was taking a kayak from the beginning of the Danube all the way to Vienna,” he said. “And I’ll tell you, if after kayaking down there — sharing a tent all the time and all the turmoil and portages and all that kind of stuff that comes with a trip like that — you still like each other, you're probably somewhat compatible.”
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After they married, the couple was working at the Edzell Army Base in Scotland when they had their two sons. When Devin was 2 and Brett was just a few months old, the couple decided to move back to the U.S. and settled near Cass Lake.
“We would take our two boys and stick one in the front of one canoe and another in the front of the other canoe and we'd go paddling as a family," John shared. “Obviously at first they didn't do very much, but they learned and really came to love it.”
One thing the family has done together for many years was compete in the Lake Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival races. John has paddled with the HydraHeads team for all 18 years of the festival, with Brett, Devin and Ed joining in some years as well.
“Wanda did it with us maybe seven or eight years, too,” he said. “And then she decided that was enough of dragon boating.”
He said when she wasn’t racing, she was always cheering them on from the sidelines and helping in other ways.
“But also, she was a gardener, and gardening took precedence over just about everything, including her husband most of the time,” he said with a laugh. “People would come to see her and be like ‘Where's Wanda?’ and I'd say, ‘Well, look over there, if you see someone sticking out of the weeds that would be Wanda.’ She loved the garden.”
The couple was married nearly 50 years before Wanda passed away in January 2020 at the age of 80. In the years following her passing, each participant of the Minnesota Canoe Races sported a hat embroidered with “Wanda’s Race” across the back, dedicating the event to her.
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Now, as John nears 86, he said he’s having to scale back on his paddling activities, simply because it’s getting more difficult to get in and out of the boats.
But his passion for the sport still very much remains. He also cross-country skis three to four times a week when there’s good snow on the ground and has enjoyed participating in Bemidji’s Snowjourn and Finlandia ski races over the years.
“It's all fun,” John said. “It's good exercise as well and is just part of the sporting life. I would recommend the sporting life for everybody because it helps you maintain the ability to move your body for a longer period of time in various directions. It keeps you young.”
The next generation
Brett and Devin both graduated from Bemidji High and Bemidji State University before eventually relocating to the Twin Cities. Now, Brett works in the plant pathology department at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul and Devin works at a ski shop in the summer in the Twin Cities and commutes to Bemidji on weekends where he operates the Home Place Bike and Ski Shop in the winter.
The brothers shared that they would have missed out on a lot of fun experiences throughout their lives had their parents not passed down such an appreciation for the outdoors.
“They were great role models for just staying active, appreciating the outdoors, getting fresh air, especially in the winter, because if you don't do anything outside in the winter, it can be pretty long and miserable,” Brett said.
“We had to go outside every day,” Devin added. “I don't remember thinking of it as a chore, but I remember that was a big thing. Like, ‘Oh, no, you haven't gone outside? I don't know how cold it is but you're going to go out and ski around the woods.’”
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So now, as Brett’s 11-year-old, Solomon, takes on the mantel as the next generation of the Arenz family, he is encouraging that same outdoor lifestyle.
“I'm trying to kind of do the same thing as our parents, just giving a lot of opportunities to do different things,” Brett said. “Like, ‘Hey, I'm going skiing, you can come with me if you want.’ But I never want to be too, like, ‘Yes, you're going to do this,’ because that was never our situation growing up, so don’t want to force it.”
Giving back
As John reflected on the many fun activities he and his family have participated in around the area and beyond over the years, he said a crucial thing for him is returning the favor.
As he and his buddies have aged out of certain activities, it’s been a priority for them to keep the sport alive by continuing to help with organizing and supporting local events.
“After we got out of our racing stages, we started helping with races,” John explained. “And I think that's a real healthy pattern. The athletes have done their deal, they've benefited from athletics, so now they should get into volunteer kinds of things like that.”
The Mississippi River canoe races are no exception and an annual event the Arenz family has always been involved in.
“This event, what we call Headwaters Canoe Race, Bemidji Canoe Race, Minnesota Canoe Championships, it's all the same race, it's just the names kind of changed a lot,” he explained. “But I was always involved with it one way or another, just as a helper or as a race partner like now.”
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When Walters moved to the area in 1992, he got involved with the canoe races and John said he has done what he can over the years to keep the event going.
“I told my kids, you know — I'm a couple of months away from 86 — I said ‘I don't care who (is organizing) the race, if they decide they don't want to do it anymore, you two guys are responsible for keeping it going,’” John said.
While Brett and Devin didn’t make any official commitments that day on the riverside, it is an event they hope will continue for years to come.
“This is one of the most beautiful sections of the Mississippi, it's just gorgeous,” Brett said. “So we obviously want to keep this kind of event alive. And you participate in so many events in your life, as a racer or whatever, so it feels good to kind of pay back the community by supporting them on the other end.”
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